Blog Evaluation

Before my RTF 305 blog, I had made several attempts at keeping a blog. I'd gone through several iterations of basically the same thing, mainly using the posts as a creative outlet and/or a place to rant. I currently maintain a tumblr, which I don't use nearly as often as I would like.

I enjoyed using a blog for the class because the prompts let me talk about some of my favorite movies and TV shows. Twice I used Back to the Future, one time I used 30 Rock, and I've briefly mentioned other shows and movies. I really like TV and film, and I love talking about them any chance I get (hence why I'm majoring in RTF).

The only difficulties I would encounter were coming up with ideas to fit the prompt. I found Blogger pretty easy to use, so I had no technical problems.

I found the posts where we brought in our own examples of TV and film to be interesting, especially the shot language one. That one was great because I really enjoy talking about the gritty creative details and analyzing films. I found the theory posts to be less interesting, such as the one about industrial factors in the early radio industry. That was simply because I don't find that topic very interesting.

I would recommend the use of blogs in the future for RTF 305. It's a good way to keep students engaged, with short weekly writing assignments. I would also like to see it used in other classes. I definitely like blogging more that I do writing essays.

I might suggest more peer reviewing of blogs. I don't know, I would like to get the sense of community that actual blogs have. Maybe required comments on at least 3 other posts or something?


Yes, you can use my blog in a paper or report.

Advertising

For this blog post, I decided to look at an ad that just recently started airing. The ad serves a dual purpose, it is advertising for American Express using Conan O'Brien as a spokesperson while also promoting Conan's new show which airs tomorrow. In the ad, Conan is shown traveling around India, looking for fine silk, buying the silk, dying it, and then hanging it up. Conan speaks perfect (to the common English-speaking viewer) Hindi throughout the commercial. It is not known what the silk is for until the very end, when it is shown that it is for curtains for a show Conan is doing. A narrator then says "If you're really serious about your entertainment, every detail counts."

Here is the ad:


This ad uses the appeal of autonomy/escape. This appeal is designed to capitalize on the viewer's design to be an individual and to "escape" from the drudgery and monotony of the world around them. Advertisements use it by showing the viewer that by doing or buying the thing that is advertised, they will become autonomous and escape.

In the case of this ad, it focuses on the refinement of taste. Conan is portrayed as having really particular, refined, fancy tastes in his silk for the curtains. He goes to great lengths to create them in the narrative of the ad, and the final product is marveled on by many,  many people. With the bit of narration at the end it really emphasizes that those with refined, individual tastes use the American Express card and watch Conan's show. This makes people feel like to become autonomous and escape from the lower ranks, they too should use American Express cards.

3 Act Structure: Back to the Future

Once again, I am going to use my absolute favorite movie as an example for a blog post. Back to the Future fits the 3 act structure perfectly.

The first act starts with Marty arriving at Doc's lab, to find that Doc isn't there. He then gets a call from Doc about the multitude of clocks in the lab, checking to see what time they said and hinting at the time travel experiments he has been running. Marty then realizes he's late for school and makes way to class via the awesome power of a skateboard, well timed cars to grab onto and Huey Lewis. He is late for class and is told by the vice principal that he will never amount to anything "just like his father." He gets home to find that the family car has been wrecked, ruining his chances of going on his big planned date with his girlfriend. The car was wrecked by Biff, his father's constant bully. Doc calls Marty to meet him at 1:15 AM at Twin Pines Mall, where Doc then unveils the DeLorean time machine and explains how it works. The first act's mini-climax then occurs when Libyan terrorists shoot Doc and Marty escapes in the DeLorean, accidentally travelling back to 1955 in the process.

The second act then begins, with Marty crashing into a family-owned barn. The family believes he is an alien and the DeLorean his spaceship, Marty then flees with the DeLorean. He later runs into his father, George McFly, in a diner and watches as Biff bullies him, just as he had seen in 1985. He follows George home, but on the way there, George almost gets hit by a car. Marty pushes him out of the way, putting himself in the path of the car. The car hits him, and the driver takes him into his house, where he is cared for by his daughter. The daughter turns out to be Lorraine Banes, Marty's mother. She falls in love with Marty, setting forth a series of attempts to get Lorraine to fall in love with George as it should be. Marty enlists 1955 Doc to help him. The second act's mini-climax occurs when George punches Biff and kisses Lorraine at the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance. Marty then plays a killer version of Johnny B. Goode.

The third act is the shortest one of the film, and almost all of it's short duration is devoted to Marty and Doc's efforts to get Marty back to 1985 in the DeLorean, now rigged to be powered by lightning. In the film's climax, Marty narrowly makes it back to 1985 to find the Libyan terrorists have shot Doc. He was ineffective in stopping it from happening. But it turns out Doc was wearing a bulletproof vest. He had heeded Marty's warning. Marty goes home to find that George now has a spine. Marty also now has his own Toyota pick up truck to take his girlfriend out in. But before the end, Doc shows up in a flying DeLorean, wearing futuristic clothing and drags Marty to another adventure.

TV focused on TV

An important factor of the sitcom format is that there is always a focus on TV. The TV is always an important part of the sitcom set, even if it is only implied and never seen. The TV on the set acts as a link between the viewer's TV in their home and the show, that way viewers can better relate to the characters in the sitcom. Just like the viewers, the characters are very absorbed by the TV. It is a center point in their lives, something solid in the always wacky world of sitcoms.

One of my favorite shows, 30 Rock, takes the importance of TV in sitcoms one step further. The entire show revolves around the production of a television show, which really heightens the importance of TV in these characters' lives. TV not only becomes a center point of their home lives, but of their professional lives as well. One character, Kenneth, lives and breathes television. As a page, he has the lowliest job of any character on the show, but he exudes this childlike (and hilarious) joy just because he works with what he loves: television.

Here's a clip from the show displaying Kenneth's love for TV.

Shots in Back to the Future

For this blog post, I chose my absolute favorite movie, Back to the Future.

In this close up shot, we can see the details of the character Lorraine's expression. In the context of the movie, she is looking at Marty. It is clear to see from this shot that she has feelings for Marty already. This shot is important, because it must establish those feelings, just as we are introduced to the character. This leads to one of the main conflicts of the film, Marty trying to ensure that Lorraine ceases her longing for him - because she is his mother. 

In this medium shot from the same scene, Lorraine and Marty's relationship is even better established. You can still see Lorraine's feelings for Marty, but now you can see Marty's abject horror at the prospect of his mother liking him in that way. He is also somewhat bewildered, not only by the situation but by how attractive his mother is. That is an important aspect to the conflict mentioned above. The thought that she is his mother in the future disgusts him, but on one hand she is very good looking. 

This medium shot establishes important relationship details for Doc Brown and Marty. Marty's expression is hesitant and worried, as he is looking at what he has just been told is a time machine. However Doc is enthusiastic and smiling about it. Throughout the movie they maintain that relationship. Doc is always eager and impulsive while Marty is hesitant and thoughtful. A lot can also be said about Doc's hand on Marty's shoulder. Doc is a mentor to Marty and is a figure that Marty really looks up to.

Economies of Scale in the Studio System

In the Classic Hollywood studio system, studios were vertically integrated, meaning they owned every facet of production. Because of this they were able to churn out large amounts of movies every year. They would reuse sets, actors, writers and even characters as many times as they good, getting the most bang for their buck. This was how Classic Hollywood used the economies of scale concept. They made so many movies with the same raw materials that it became incredibly cheap to make them, and therefore incredibly easy to turn a profit.

This is most evident in genre films, such as westerns or detective movies. Their sets and stars were the most readily reusable and the cookie-cutter plots made scripts easy to turn out faster. That, in addition to their popularity, made them very profitable pictures. This can even be seen today, though to a lesser extent. Studios will produce lots of cheap, monotonous romantic comedies and action movies in efforts to make lots of money. And because it works, the system is perpetuated. Those genres stagnate creatively, but continue to make millions of dollars every weekend.

All in the Family vs. Modern Family

I approached this blog post knowing that I was going to write it comparing All in the Family to the Emmy Award-winning Modern Family, but as one of the last to write my post, I saw that a ton of people on our sections blogroll made the same comparison. I spent a while trying to draw comparisons to some of my other favorite shows (Mad Men, Lost, 30 Rock, etc.), but I realized that Modern Family really is the best (and probably the easiest) example. 

Modern Family and All in the Family are similar in that they deal with multiple generations of one family and how they interact with one another. They are both sitcoms that revolve around the family's daily life. They are different in that Modern Family is, well, modern and also tends to skew more toward ridiculous shenanigans, while All in the Family is more grounded (and, of course, set in the 1970s). Modern Family seems to represent a slightly more upper class family, while All in the Family is firmly based on a typical middle/working class family. Also, one of the sub-families of the larger family in Modern Family is a gay couple and their daughter.

Through the gay couple and their daughter, Modern Family presents many issues relevant to gay people in America today. The episode of All in the Family we watched in class dealt with the issue of how others view gay people through Archie and his discrimination towards their "la-di-da" ways. Now, while ahead of its time, I felt that this episode of All in the Family represented the issue very poorly. By making the protagonist the one with the views the audience is supposed to question, this makes it seem as though they are the views the creators of the show support. Also, the presence of a studio audience who laughed at almost every derogatory comment made by Archie about gays made the whole thing seem like a joke at the expense of gay people. Modern Family deals with gay issues in a much more (again, the show is aptly named) modern way. By making the gay characters protagonists,  it presents their views in a much better light for acceptance by the viewing public.